m 

LA85H8 



■:.:;:.: : .; 




!■•:; 










Class ... 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ v \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \y 
/ 

^ICAL 




/ 
/ 

i 

/ 

/ 
/ 
/ 

/ 
/ 
/ 

', 

/ 
/ 

' 

/ 

/ 
/ 

/ 

/ 

/ 



■v 



c *^ 




-OF THE- 



TIMES AND MEN 



: \- 



ASHFIELD, MASS., 



DURING THE 



REVOLUTIONARY WAR, 

BY 

BARNABAS HOWES, 

ASHFIELD, 



Who will send upon the receipt of Twenty- 
Five Gents, a copy postpaid 
to any address. 



"A'alden, Hook and Job Printer, 

a 'uieet. Nobth Adams, Mi 



/ 

/ 

/ 

/■> 

• 

/ 

/ 

/ 

/ 
/ 

/ 
/ 

/ 
■/} 
/' 
/ 
/ 

/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 



dWi/ 






.' \ v.:x \ \ ■ * \ \ \_.\ \ \ \ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by 

BARNABAS HOWES, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



^c^ CAL s *^c^ 



OF THE 

TIMES AND MEN 



IX- 



ASHFIELD, MASS., 



-DURING THE- 



REVOLUTIONARY WAR, 

BY 

BARNABAS HOWES, 

ASHFIELD, 

WJw will send wpon the receipt of Twenty- 
Five Cents, a copy postpaid 
to any address. 



Mrs. W. B. Walden, Book and Job Printer, 

24 South Street, North Adams. Mass. 



( 



I 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
OF THE TIMES AND MEN 

IN ASHFIELD, MASS., 

DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, 



The year 1777 was a peculiarly dark and trying one, to 
that part of the inhabitants of Ashfield who were patriotic. 
Many of them had been here only a year, while all the settle- 
ments in town were quite recent. Prominent men did not dis- 
guise their sympathy with the royal government, and the 
year before three men had fallen in the battle of Long Island, 
never to return to their friends. The armies of Howe and 
Burgoyne were driving the Americans before them at almost 
every point. It is therefore an highly interesting inquiry, 
what did our fathers do? The historical account that has 
come down to us gives answer. They put forth vigorous 
efforts, and offered earnest prayer to the God of Heaven for 
Providential aid. 

Of the efforts, I have often heard, how when a messenger 
came on the 16th of August to call for soldiers, he found men 



at the old meeting-house with their muskets, ready to go 
promptly on to the army. And upon examining a list of the 
patriotic I am impressed with the thought, that so large a pro- 
proporti >n of them did SO. Seven out of twelve of those who 
were Of suitable age. Two men it appears were enduring hard 
service under Washington. Mr. Stocking had nine men to 
guard in his house because of their Tory sympathy. So we 

be efforts of the newly and thinly settled districts were 
to the extent of their ability; though our estimate does not 
comprise the most thickly settled districts as No 1, 2, 
and 8. For at this late day, I am unable to learn where all 
their men were. Then our fatiiers were wise enough to do 
more than put forth determined efforts. They earnestly 
sought for assistance from "the great Judge of the Universe." 
Not only soldiers went on ; their minister went as a chaplain. 
The Rev. Nehemiah Porter left Ashfield soon after the 16th of 
August and did not return until after the surrender of Bur- 
goyne. His serving as chaplain in Gen. Gates' army is the 
great historical event of Ashfield, though Dr. Paine does not 
allude to it in his history of the town. Yet it may be safely 
claimed, that it would be profitable to every friend of our 
count vy to know about Ids services to it, in the time of ite trial. 
But though [ have for nearly twenty years been endeavoring 
to find something published or written about them, I h ave 
found only a few sentences. I am obliged, therefore, to 
rely up >n traditional reports. They inform us that at one 
time the army was assembled for prayer, and Mr. Porter en- 

d so long and earnestly in prayer, a profane soldier said, 
•'I don't want toliveuntil that man gets done praying." From 
what Dr. Thatcher, a surgeon in the army, has recorded in 
his journal, we infer this assembling of the soldiers was on 
the Sabbath, just before Gen. Gates marched north to meet 
Burgoyne. And the next day he wrote and issued his procla- 
mation, encouraging the Americans to expect the help of 
Heaven. It Seems evident Gates was inspired with this en- 
couraging assurance to his men, by hearing Mr. Porter's 
prayer. 

\.il if there is a Heaven to help the oppressed, in their 

efforts to resist kings and aristocrats, Mr. Porter's prayers 

of,great Bervice to secure the independence of our free 



nation. Quite too many at the present day reason as if there 
was no such Heaven. They are unwilling to admit that there 
is an unseen Mind exercising omnipotent power to control all 
events, as the prayers of good people desire. But have we not 
evidence that Gen. Gates reasoned correctly, when he told 
them that Heaven would help them V For was not efficient aid 
given ? It is said that the battles of Saratoga and Stillwater 
decided that the friends of liberty should succeed in estab- 
lishing a free government, or meet with irretrievable defeat, 
and that irretrievable defeat would have overtaken our army, 
had not an unexpected event kept its general and officers from 
going on with their unskillfully formed plans. A large body 
of our men were kept from a bad movement, by a British 
deserter, who informed them where Burgoyne's soldiers lay 
concealed, and so saved them from imminent danger. 

This shows how easily an unseen Mind may make a very 
slight cause the means of producing vast results. We can 
understand that it was not difficult to induce the deserter to 
go over to the Americans and communicate information of 
great importance. Upon communicating that information 
depended the victory at Saratoga, and that victory secured in 
the end the freedom and independence of the nation. We see, 
therefore, that events are determined not by the evolution of 
matter moving round and round again by a course of unvary- 
ing laws ; but by knowledge as it is possessed and used by 
mind. We can easily understand how the mind of a shrewd 
man, may furnish a general with such knowledge, as will en- 
able him to gain an important victory. May w^e not suppose a 
Mind infinitely more learned and skillful may do as much and 
vastly more. Now this is what we believe is Providentially 
done in answer to prayer. The infinite knowledge of God is 
continually directing events. The great Divine Mind is ever 
turning the minds of men, and events contingent upon the 
will of men are so changed or modified, as to make them accom- 
plish His designs. If then He has designs of granting, what is 
desired in prayer, no one is able to resist His purposes. Our 
fathers in this town had a tirm belief that He has such designs. 
So strong was their confidence Mr. Porter and several pious 
soldiers, turned aside into a retired place and spent a season in 
earnest prayer, while the battle was raging at Saratoga. And 



the fact tliat the most decisive victory of the Revolutionary 
war was gained alter seasons of special prayer, is a strong 
argument for the existence of an intelligent Being, who has 
great power to help the true friends of freedom, if they call 
upon Him, 

Then the Bible teaches that ; 'if we regard iniquity in our 
hearts, the Lord will not hear us." We claim we have an illus- 
tration of this, when we consider that our fathers were not 
slave-holders. They did not insult the Cod of Heaven with 
prayers, while they neglected to give liberty to the Negro. I 
have what I deem reliable information, that the Rev. Jacob 
Sherwin. the Congregational minister in our town, owned a 
slave : and for his treatment of her, he was dismissed from 
the ministerial office. And so great was the aversion of our 
fathers to the practice of holding slaves, and so deeply were 
they impressed with the truth, "that all men were created free 
and equal," they deemed him unworthy of a standing in the 
pulpit. Our space will not permit me to give a detailed ac- 
count of this early, if not the first, ellort in America to re- 
deem the Christian church from the practice of holding 
slaves. It is sufficient to our present purpose to say that the 
prayers Mr. Porter and Deacon Taylor rose to Heaven un- 
hindered by any complicity with the practice of depriving 
men of their freedom. 

We have therefore another and a conclusive argument in 
thi-. that there is a Mind exercising omnipotent power, to help 
those deprived of freedom in their struggles against their 
oppressors. For if we have in writing certain specified con- 
ditions, in which prayer will or will not be heard, and those 
conditions are manifestly adhered to, evidence is furnished, 
which ought to convince every reasonable man. that there is a 
"Supreme Judge of the Universe." To such it will be inter- 
est ing and profitable to notice how many of the victories of 
the Revolutionary war were gained in the non-slave-holding 
part- of the country ; and how many of its defeats were ex- 
perienoed in the slave-holding parts. The men who rallied at 
Lexington and drove the British hack to Boston were not 
Blave-holders. Neither were the men who stood on Bunker 
Hill and shot down the British infantry. The defenders of 
Fort Stan wix, and the Green Mountain boys and the Sons of 



New Hampshire, who won so promptly the desirable victory 
at Bennington, were not slave-holders ; neither were the men 
who stood firm at Saratoga, and met the thrice repeated 
charges of Burgoyne's selected soldiers, though their com- 
mander was. Gen. Washington, a slave-holder, was the first 
in command, when it suffered the severe and disastrous defeat 
on Long Island. Gen. Gates, a slave-holder, commanded at 
Camden, when he and soldiers from slave-holding states were 
panic smitten, and almost every defeat and reverse, was in 
slave-holding states ; and so furnishes an illustration that 
the sin of holding slaves hindered the prayers of those who 
interceded for their own freedom and independence, while 
they neglected to give liberty to the African race. 

We have, therefore sound reasons for claiming Mr. Porter 
rendered important services as chaplain, by his prayers and 
counsels to his country and the cause of freedom throughout 
the whole world. All the authors of our American histories, 
in their zeal to give Washington the honor of acheiving our 
independence, fail to present a full and correct view of the very 
great importance of the victories at Fort Stanwix, Bennington 
and Saratoga. But if we turn to what English historians 
have written, we find a more just estimate of it. Hume says : 
"Uncertain rumors being spread at London, in the course of 
the morning, as soon as Parliament met, the Secretary was 
questioned respecting the intelligence. Rising slowly in his 
seat, in a low voice and sorrowful accents, he acknowledged 
that Gen. Burgoyne and his army were prisoners of war. For 
a considerable time after the fatal tidings were delivered, a 
dead silence overspread the house ; shame, consternation and 
dismay from the declared issue of tiieir boasted armament, 
did not more closely enchain the tongues of the promoters of 
the war, than astonishment and grief overwhelmed the feel- 
ings and utterances of thnir opponents. The stillness, how- 
ever, of amazement and grief, at length gave way to the loud- 
ness of lament and fury of indignation ; all the charges and 
censures, that ever had been or could be adduced were repeated 
and accumulated against the authors of the war." From this 
extract we see that the able British statesmen considered their 
defeats which had resulted in the surrender of Burgoyne, as 
severe ones, and likely to have a highly disastrous effect upon 



8 

their oause, and though the pride of George the Third and 
his ministers, enc >uraged by the self-conceited and rash man- 
agement of Gates at Camden, kept him from acknowledging 
our independence for several years ; still the question was 
decided. I have said Mr. Porter's serving as chaplain in the 
army, was the great historical event in Ash field ; I may with 
truth, I believe, say that his services in the army were in a pre- 
eminent degree, a great historical event in the history of the 
world. For far-reaching effects have for the past one hundred 
years, resulted from them. Our history hooks state that Col. 
Baum was "despatched to seize a magazine of stores at Ben- 
nington." Dr. Thatcher, a surgeon in the army, in his jour- 
nal says Baum was ordered to "march to the Connecticut 
river and return by the other road," to capture a large number 
of horses and "to endeavor to produce the impression it was 
his design to forma junction with die British forces in Rhode 
Island." If we consider what is the reason for this difference 
b i ween him and the others, we should understand that almost 
all the authors of our histories are unwilling to displease slave- 
holders ; or else have written under the influence of political 
] tarty zeal. They try to make it appear that Burgoyne's only 
object in sending out Baum was to capture the military stores ; 
and so his generalship appears to many not to have been of a 
very high order ; and therefore his defeat by Northern men 
had less to do in bringing the war to a successful close. But 
ii he sent him with orders to "march to the Connecticut 
river an<l hack again by the other road : "' his ability as a gen- 
eral may be estimated as of much higher order. For it was 
quite a shrewd plan to send abroad this detachment, to 
strengthen the Tory spirit, already very strong, as we, who 
have lived all our days among the hills of western Massachu- 
31 tts, have often been informed : for by so doing Gates' army 
could not be re-enforced by crowds of militiamen. The im- 
pression therefore, which some, if not all the readers of his- 
tory books, that were published previous to President Lincoln's 

proclamation of emancipation have, that Burgoyne was an 

Incompetent general is a mistaken one. He was undoubtedly 
an able odie, r, and it was only a hair-breath escape, that the 
friends of Liberty had, from having their cause strangled 
to death by him. And it was not the ability of generals, that 



stopped his doing it; but the rallying of hardy men from log houses 
and houses little better, with Providential aid, who captured him 
and his army, and established peace and safely ai.d free institutions, 
among our hills and rallies. 

Two thousand seven hundred years before the leading men in 
the freest nation that ever peopled the earth, said to their Judge : 
"Make us a king that he may go out before us, and fight our bat- 
tles." From that remote age until the victory over King George 
the Third the opinion prevailed among the nations that a 
monarchical form of goverment made a nation more efficient 
in war than a republican one, but in 1777, the experiment was 
tried, and a republican government proved to make a nation the 
most powerful in war. And this experiment is of inestimable im- 
portance to the inhabitants of the whole world. For the only ar- 
gument for a monarchical government was shown to be the mis- 
taken opinion of men adapted without careful experiments. Hence 
the efforts and prayers of our father have been a cause producing 
far-reaching effects. 

There is hardly a king now in the whole world, that does not 
tremble on his throne, as the result of what the friends of freedom 
did to Burgoyne and his army. It was a terrible experiment to 
them — a bursting forth of a mighty moral principle, that like a 
great earthquake that begins to rock a few hills, but year after 
year moves on with increasing volume of sound and ominous shak- 
ing of mountains, rocks, oceans, forests and dwellings. 

The moral and intellectual greatness of a man does not depend 
on his being a ruler of a kingdom or an empire, or his being the 
commander of a large and successful army, but on the courage 
with which he endures trials and meets difficulties and dangers. 
Mr. Porter, in the darkest hours of our country, when men's 
hearts were failing them for fear, and when five Congregational 
clergymen in what is now Franklin county were Tories, went on to 
serve as chaplain in Gates' army. And so far as we can learn no 
other clergymen of any denomination in the whole country offered 
to serve in that capacity in his army. 

Of the other years, and of the other men who served in the 
Revolutionary war from our town, my space will require me to be 
brief, and only to relate the most interesting incidents. 

Their names were : 



to 

BIOSES s.Ml TIL. Su.. Killed. 

MOSES SMITH. Jr., 

CORNELIUS WARREN. 

TIMOTHY PERKINSj Jb. 

JONATHAN TAYLOR, Jr. 

ZACHARIAH HOWES, 

ELISHA PARKER, 

JOHN WARD, 

SAMUEL GUILFORD, 

JOSEPH BISHOP, 

SAMUEL BURTON, 

JONATHAN LYON, Lost an arm. 

Eldeb ENOS SMITH. 

.JONATHAN LILLY. 

SPENCER PHILLIPS. 

SYLVESTER PHILLIPS, 

TIMOTHY WARREN, 

BETHUEL LILLY, 

(A LLP, WARD, 
EDWARD AN ABLE, 
JOHN BELDING, 
'JOHN ALDEN, Died. 

JOEL CRANSTON. 

EBENEZER CRANSTON, 

JOSIAH FILLER, 

HENRY ROGERS, Died. 

(v. i. ASA CRANSTON, 

Deacon JOHN BEMENT. 

PHINEAS BEMENT, 

ROBERT GRAY. 
re young men, who served in the Revolutionary war, 
settled in Ashfield before it closed or soon after. Their names are: 

LOT. BASSETT, 

STEPHEN WARREN, 

SOLOMON HILL, 

CALEB CHURCH, 

JOSEPH GURNEY, 

CABAN STETSON, 

CALEB PACKARD, 

EZEKIEL TAYLOR, 



II 

DAVID VINCENT, 
JONATHAN SEARS, 
CALVIN MAYNAKD, 
TIMOTHY CATLIN, 
ZEBINA LEONARD, 
BENJIMAN SHAW. 

We find in the history of North Ashfield, that this " Moses Smith 
was of Ashfield, 1753, and the son of Samuel, who was the son of 
Preserved, who was the son of Henry, who came to America in 
1635, and was cousin to Chileab, and who married when 90 a fourth 
wife ; children of the fifth generation attending his wedding." It is 
also stated that he had two sons, Moses and Aaron. From finding 
among the list of voters in 1774 two Moses Smith's, I have evi- 
dence that his son Moses was the one killed in battle and that Aaron 
died when young. As no further account is given of his descen- 
dents, which coincides with the tradition that none of his male 
descendents survived the battle of Long Island. An additional 
statement inform us he Avas Ensign from Hinsdale in 1701-4. So 
we may infer our town sent a veteran to the army early in the war. 

We have often read how Washington, in the heat of the battle 
of Long Island, crossed over from New York to Brooklyn, and see- 
ing his best soldiers slaughtered, uttered an exclamation of anguish. 
No doubt there were many exclamations of anguish, when the 
news came to Ashfield, that three of their best soldiers had fallen 
in battle. Moses Smith left a little daughter of two years, the only 
surviving member of the family ; how great must have been her 
sorrow, that her father and only brother were killed so soon after 
the death of her mother. She was carried by friends to one of the 
river towns, and lived to the age of seventy-four, when the mother 
of the writer saw her, and she told her the sad story. 

Quite as sad was the story of the death of Cornelius Warren, 
who was shot in the same battle. A most feeling account of the 
deep sorrow of his mother, was told to me by one who was her 
next door neighbor. How her husband was intemperate and treated 
her cruelly, while Cornelius was kind and industrious but her other 
and younger sons were not. Had as many in proportion to the 
population been killed in the thirteen states, I find by computation 
1751 would have been slain. 
' Jonathan Lilly, born in Stafford, Conn., in 1740, came to Ash- 



field in L762, and had Berved in the French war four years and 
was a veteran in the Revolutionary war. 

Joel and Ebenezer Cranston went into the army under Washing- 
ton about 177'.». Iioth of these young men died suddenly of dysen- 
tery. The fatal disease was ca ised by eating beef badly cooked. 

Henry Rogers, the father of Sarah, the wife of Seth Church, 
was drafted. At first he felt reluctant to join the army, but after 
the first campaign he more willingly engaged in the service of his 
country, until death ended his earthly trials and hardships. 

Of John Alden, who died, and Jonathan Lyon, who lost an 
arm. w« are not able to learn much about. 

John Ward, it appears from the statement of his daughter. Mrs. 

I Phillips, now living at Ashtield. was in service three years or 

more: and his son. John C informed us was at Saratoga, and 

i only about five feet from Burgoyne, when he gave up his 

sword to Cen. Gates. He never had a pension. 

Timothy Perkins, Jr., the father of Jehiel, and Timothy Warren 
were in the army three years or more, but Perkins had to much 
property to draw a pension under the law as first enacted. 

Bethuel Lilly was in the army 17*0. and was guard of Andre on 
the oighl before his execution, and as he was taken to the gallows. 
One of hi> sons, Joel, had three out of his four sons in the war to 
maintain our Union; Joel, Jr., Casper, who died suddenly in the 
(•amp. and Rufus. 

The descendants of Joseph Guroey, Solomon Hill, Laban Stet- 
Ezekiel Taylor and Caleb Packard are living in Spruce Corner 
district or its vicinity. Three of Packard's grand-sons live now in 
Plainfield. Several anecdotes may be related of Ezekiel Taylor 
tha are worth preserving. He stopped over night at the house of 
my father, and in the morning said he was on his way to the next 
town to pay a debl to the widow of Dr. A. He told how several 
b< fore he had failed in business, but now having got a pension 
he was determined to pay his debts. A different spirit at the pres- 
ent time actuates many men. and they refuse to pay their debts 
after they fail. We have often heard he told with great glee, hOW 
when the tidings came of the gathering under Daniel Shays, he 
took his musket and started upon a run. until in some way he dis- 
sket h id no lock on it. and was worthless. 

Stephen Warren lived to the age of ninety. Some of his des- 
cendants are living in Illinois. 



13 

David Vincent — though his father was reluctant to have him do 
it — enlisted near the close of the war. He was a pensioner; so 
was his son David, Jr., for serving in the war of 1812. 

We are informed that all of the Church name in Ashfield are 
the descendants of Caleb Church. 

Joseph Blake served in the Revolutionary Avar, though he lived 
and died in what is now the town of Goshen. His grand-son, Hosea 
Blake, in 1876, had in his possession the old French gun he used 
in the war, and he said he very highly prized it, and it is now kept 
by Silas Blake, Esq. 

More interesting than almost any of the historical items that 
have been related to us, was how Elizabeth Stocking spun the yarn 
and wove a piece of cloth for the soldiers. There must have been 
much real hard work in converting enough tow into cloth to make 
a piece of some thirty or forty yards. She married Timothy Per- 
kins, Jr., November 25th, 1779, after his return from the Avar. 

A veteran soldier, Nathan Crosby, stayed over night at the 
house of my father in 1823. He stood in a hard place in the hard 
fought battle of Monmouth, and the hot sun of that day struck up- 
on his brain, and his mind became disordered. He journeyed from 
Dennis on Cape Cod to Ashfield and back again almost every year, 
carrying on his back a large pack. He walked to Washington to 
see the President — I think it was Munroe — and plead with him to 
recommend to Congress to enact a pension law, and though we 
do not know how much influence his speech had with the President. 
yet to see the once vigorous young man stand up and tell what he 
suffered in that severe battle on that intensely hot day, and to no- 
tice his packs which contained all of his property, must, it is reason- 
able to suppose, have lead the President to reflect upon the circum- 
stance of one, who had endured so much for forty long years and 
never had much financial aid from his country. But the poor man 
died before any pension law helped him. 



AAROX LYON. 



"At a town meeting held June 10, 1777, it was voted that Aaron 
Lyon is a suitable person to procure evidence against certain per- 
sons, who were thought to be enemies of the American States." It 
is interesting to learn who this man was and in what part of the 
town he lived, and what made him a suitable person for such a work. 



14 

The writers of "The Memoirs of Mary Lyon" were evidently un- 
acquainted with this event in the life of her grand-father, that un- 
questionably had much to do in determining what her character 
should be. Let ns therefore recall a view of his situation in the 
Bummer of 1777. Burgoyne's orders to Col. Baum were to march 
as far as the Connecticut river and endeavor to produce the im- 
pression that he intended to form a junction with the British forces 
in Rhode Island, and return hy the other road. If he had succeeded 
in advancing, his route would have been on to Fort Massachusetts 
al East Hoosac, now North Adams, and then over the mountain to 
near Fort Shirly. now Heath: then ford the river in what is now 
Buckland. He must next go up The Hollow to the settlement in 
the north-east part of AshficM. near Aaron Lyon's house. But he 
was Dot a man to he afraid of his duty to his country, and August, 
1777. Aaron Lyon. Peter Cross and Phincas Bartlett, Selectmen of 
Ashneld, brought into town meeting a report; that "Samuel Beld- 
ing, Seth Wait. Philip Phillips. Samuel Anable, Jr., Wait Brough- 
ton, Asa Bacon, Elijah Wait. .Jesse Edson and Daniel Bacon ought 
to be brought to a proper trial. The author of the History of the 
Connecticut Valley makes the statement that Aaron Lyon came to 
Bucklabd about 1780, but it is doubtful if he ever lived in Buck- 
land. The present lines of the towns were not established until 
Marj Lyon was about ten years of age. And a list of voters of 
Ashneld, in 1798 has the name of Aaron Lyon. This was the 
grandfather of Mary, and I am told by Elijah Clark, of Plainfield, 
qOw ninety years of age, who lived some years in Ashneld in his 
youth, that both father and son lived together. I have heen in- 
formed bj Deacon Frederick Forbes, of Buckland, that there was a 
strife between the towns, which should have a gore lying be- 

q them. Squire Taylor, of Buckland. went to the General 
Court, and Squire Williams from Ashneld, for the purpose of get- 
tin- tlir gore annexed to their town. During the absence of Squire 
Williams, Squire Taylor brought up the subject and no one being 
presenl t<> oppose i im, gol the town lines altered to his satisfaction 
and bo tli.- Lyon place was joined to Buckland. Instead of Aaron 
Lyon, Jr., coming to Buckland in 1780, he was horn on his father's 
fai in about 1767, in the tow n of AshhVld. and that farm has great 
notoriety as the birth-place of Mary Lyon. Thus we see that the 

r of her memoirs were unacquainted with an important fact in 
In! education, the mental and moral training given her family, when 



T 5 

the town of Ashfield voted "that Aaron Lyon, her grand-father, "is 
a suitable person" to procure evidence against the Tories in their 
town. Traits of character when introduced into a family are per- 
petuated to the third and fourth generation, or from generation to 
generation for thousands of years, and though Aaron Lyon might 
have had energy of mind before the town thus voted, we may well 
claim that vote greatly strengthened and developed it, and so in- 
spired him with greatness, both mental and moral. 



THE GRAVE OF MOSES RAWSON. 



In the North-west school district, in the cemetery lying at the 
foot of Pumpkin Hill, is the grave of an old Revolutionary soldier. 
When a small boy I recollect visiting my aunt, the wife of his son, 
Oliver Rawson, and while there I heard them talking about his 
plans to get a pension for his then aged father. But the man who 
had done almost five years' hard service for his country had been 
to industrious and saving, and had to much property to have a pen- 
sion in those years. Soon after his body was laid in the grave, 
though no monument marks the spot. Yet the traveler to our rural 
town may feel paid for going once to the place. When standing 
here let the dark hours of a night in 1779 be recalled, when sol- 
diers were silently marching toAvards Stony Point. Had it been 
light we should not have noticed Moses Rawson, for his shiny 
clothes, or sash, or epaulets ; for he only wore ragged pants and 
coat with a poor hat. Though had we been by his side, as he 
crossed the morass up to the walls of one of the strongest fort- 
resses the British held, and saw the prompt firmness with which he 
advanced under a severe fire of musketry and cannon, we should 
have thought he was a Massachusetts soldier, and had we reflected 
upon the place this brave veteran had assigned to him in one of the 
advancing columns, we should wish to be able to visit him, and 
learn about the hard fonght battles in which he had stood. But as 
such a wish cannot now be gratified, the writer recently visited his 
daughter, living at West Hawley, for the purpose of obtaining his- 
torical information. When asked if she remembered anything her 
father had told about what he did in the army, she said : "I often 
heard him tell about being in Fort Stanwix, when it was surrounded 
by the British for fourteen days, and how he fired so fast and so 
long, his gun became so hot he could not hold it." She thought 



i6 

her father might have got a pension, bad he taken an oath he 
w;t* poor: before doing it giving his property to his son: hut 

»uld not take a false oath. Authors are fond of writing 
about generals and kings; but it would be more profitable to 
readers, if they had the history of men and women, who have 
moved in private circles. For the courage of such often de- 
cide the destiny of nations. Perhaps I should say they always 
do. Who will tell how much depended upon the courage of 
Moses Rawson at Fort Stanwix ? Washington and the main 
army were hard pressed by Howe and his veteran soldiers; 
what could he do to oppose the army of the north? Indeed 
how was that army to he met and checked in its successful 
progress. The number of Tories in all our rowns was rapidly 
increasing. The patriotic began to tremble and feel a weak- 
i) >ss; but Moses Rawson stood firm, and fought and fired upon 
the soldiers selected to make a determined assault on Fort 
Stanwix; and after fourteen days of arduous labor under fire, 
had the satisfaction of knowing the enemy had retired. The 
Americans had been driven from Bunker Hill; from New 
York; from Ticonderoga, and from almost every other place 
where they had endeavored to make a stand; but now a per- 
sistent and vigorous assault upon them for more than two 
weeks and only left them standing firm. That this continued 
and unflinching firmness of private soldiers greatly discour- 
aged Burgoyne and his men, while it encouraged and 
strengthened the citizen soldiers to flock in crowds to re- 
inforce the army under Gates, we can easily understand. 

than this it is reasonable to suppose the men who had 
given an example of firmness at Fort Stanwix, were promptly 
called to the front of Gates' army. 

Burgoyne in his report to Parliament says: "I tried what 
vii tin then- was in the British bayonet, and sent three 
times eleven hundred men to charge the enemies' ranks.*' 

appears that he thought tlieunflinching firmness of the 
rank and file of the American army was the cause of his de- 
feat. May we not then pause and reflect long, upon what a 
private individual can accomplish, if he stands in Ids place 
and acts with unyielding courage? It is reasonable tosuppose 

oyne fully understood the importance of Fort Stanwix. 
an 1 the assault upon it was vigorous and persistent, and the 



H 

battle around and within its walls, bloody and terrible. 

Mr. Headly writes of these eventful rimes: "The gallant 
defence of Fort Stanwix had frustrated Burgoyne's plans in 
that direction. From every valley and mountain slope the 
sturdy yeomanry went pouring in to Gates, their patriotism 
kindled into a brighter glow by the shouts of victory that 
came rolling in from Vermont and down the valley of the 
Mohawk; from Fort Stanwix and the bloody field of Oriskany. 
Finding himself cut off from the assistance of St. Leyer by 
way of the Mohawk and a dark storm cloud gathering in his 
rear, and se eing an army rising before him, he surveyed with 
a stern and gloomy eye, the prospect that surrounded him. 
The second crisis in the American Revolution had come." 

Now how easy is it to see that if an over-ruling Providence 
had not moved individuals to an unbending firmness to stand 
in the day of battle, when that crisis came, it would have 
been the dark hour of ruin to the cause of freedom. For Mr. 
Headly's assertion "from every valley and mountain slope the 
sturdy yeomanry went pouring in to Gates" is only the sen- 
tence of an imaginative writer, who pens a story that will 
please a certain class of readers, rather than state the facts of 
history. For if we take our glasses and look over the hills 
and vallies of western Massachusetts, Vermont and New 
Hampshire, we shall notice only a few hill-sides and vallies 
that were settled as early as 1777. Therefore only a few far- 
mers could go from them. It was not then great numbers but the 
courage of the few, that stopped the progress of the army of 
the north. And here in this hill-side grave-yard, was laid the 
remains of one of those brave few, who fought and fired at 
Fort Stanwix; who stood firm at Saratoga to resist the repeated 
charges of the British infantry; who went on in the front 
ranks of one of the columns that captured Stony Point, and 
who for almost five years endured the privations, hardships 
and severe destitution of the camp, and not a cent has been 
expended to erect a monument to his memory or pension him 
or his children. 



iS 
EJLISHA BASSETT. 



•/// I VCIS BERNARD, Esq., Captain-General and Gover- 
nor-in- Chief [in and over His Majesty's Province a f Massachusetts 
Bay, in New England and Vice-Admiral of the satihe. 

To ELISHA BASSETT, Gent, Greeting. 

By virtue of the power and authority in and by His Majes- 
Koyal Commission to me granted &c, over this, His Majes- 
ty's Province Of the Massachusetts Bay aforesaid, I do by these 
presents (reposing special trust and confidence in your loyalty, 
courage and good conduct) constitute and appoint vou, the 
said Elisha Bassett, to be Captain of tne Second Military Com- 
pany of foot of Yarmouth and in the Regiment of militia, 
in the County of Barnstable, whereof Silas Baum is Colonel. 

You are therefore carefully and dilligent'y to discharge 
the duty of a Captain in lea ling, ordering and exercising said 
• ' >mpany — in arms, both inferior officers and soldiers and keep 
them in good order and discipline, and they are hereby com- 
manded to obey you as their Captain — and you are yourself to 
observe and follow orders ami instructions, as you shall from 
time to time receive from your Colonel or other superior 
officers, according to military rules and discipline, pursuant to 
tiir trust reposed in you. 

Given under my Hand and Seal at Arms, at Boston, the elev- 

day of dime. in the fifth year of the Reign of His Majes- 

'■ King <; rgethe Third. Anno Domini, 1765. 
By His 



Province of the 

Massachusetts Bay 

Barnstable." 



llency's Command, 
JOHN COTTEN. 
Secretary. 

Eleven years after "in 1774, an assembly was ordered by Gov* 

t<> convene Oct. 5th, but before that time arrived, he 

atermanded the writs of convocation by a proclamation. 

L88embly, however, to the number of ninety, met at Salem; 

the Governor not attending, they adjourned to Concord and 

r wards to Cambridge; drew upaplan for the immediate 

ace of the Province, by enlisting men and appointing gen- 

• •!' d officers." On" of these ninety men was Elisha Bassett, of 

Yarmouth. 1 have often heard his grand-daughter, my 

mother, speak of tins patriotic act of his, as a manifestation 



i9 

of great courage and decision of character. For his house 
stood on the north side of Cape Cod in what is now Dennis 
Close by the sea-shore. A war-ship might easily send men to 
arrest and hang him and destroy his .house and family. Then 
the pecuniary sacrifice of going a representative was scvereiy 
felt by them. My mother has repeatedly told how her grand- 
mother, whose name was Ruhamah Jennings, before her mar- 
riage, was constantly saying, "we could always get a piece of 
silver out of the chest before grand -father went representative." 
Men now aspire to represent the people at the General Court, 
with a view of improving their finances, but he must go most- 
ly, if not wholly at his own expense. 



BARNABAS HOWES 1. 



In a history of England we find the paragraph: "During 
these transactions the Americans began to make some exer- 
tions by sea, as well as by land; the system of non-importation, 
which had proceeded the war had caused a great scarcity 
of manuactured goods, which was severely felt, especially in 
procuring arms, ammunition and clothing for the troops. 
The Americans, however, by fitting out numerous privateers 
and other small vessels, found means to remedy in a consider- 
able degree, by the multitude of their captures, this inconven- 
ience, which had pressed so heavily on all classes of people, 
most of all on the army. The prizes made in a single year is 
said by some English writers, to have been estimated at a mil- 
lion sterling." Among the men who helped to do this highly 
important service for our nation, was Barnabas Howes 1 , of 
Dennis, and though he never moved to Ashfield, his sons and 
daughters did; Kimball 1776, and his daughters Phoebe and 
Betsy soon after; and his and their descendants are numerous 
here and at the West. Dec. 25th, 1778, the privateer Arnold 
sailed from Boston harbor; a terribly severe storm soon com- 
mencing, the ship was driven against the rocks near Plymonth, 
and from the wreck the body of our hardy and strong ances- 
tor, with those of seventy-seven others of sailors and soldiers, 
was taken; they having all been frozen to death by intense 
and almost unparalleled cold. The Jewish historian says 
David was a very fit man to be a king, for he went first of all 
into all danger. Of Barnabas Howes 1, it may be said, he was 



B fit man to be a leader of one of the most dangerous expedi- 
tions in t]n> Revolutionary war. For from what we can learn 
about him, he was an athletic and experienced seaman. From 
his youth his great strength and cool judgment gained him 
the reputation of being a sailor of the first class, and though 
not the captain <-!' the privateer, I infer he was the best and 
strongest sailor on it. I also infer he had before this voyage 
been out on privateers. Two important historical thoughts 
may arise in the mind of the careful reader. One is that the 
: ing out of tin- privateer, at that inclement season of the 
year, was owing t<> the anticipated approach of several trans- 
ports with valuable stores for the British army. The other is 
that the sad death of seventy-eight men accomplished much 
towards discouraging the British government. For had the 
privateer captured a prize, that government would have known 
nothing about, what "exertions" could be made "on the sea'' 
by 'the Americans." But the news of the dreadful death of 
all these men, we must believe soon became known to the 
king's ministers, and they could not but understand how the 
Americans were exerting themselves "on the sea," and so be- 
came discouraged and weakened. 

As we turn from this sketch. I wish to notice the exceeding- 
ly detective histories, which have been written in the United 
States of the Revolutionary war. I have never seen— though 
an extensive and careful leader of history — anything about 
"the exertions made on the sea." All our history books being 
written by men afraid to offend the Southern slave-holders; 
and who had therefore no interest in inquiring after what the 

common people of Massachusetts did. 

.«_ 

ashfii:li> mountain. 



Few are aware how delightful and extensive a prospect is 
afforded by Peter's Hill, the highest point on Ashfield Moun- 
tain. We have s>'''n it stated, that the beauties of a noted 
town in New Hampshire were not appreciated until they were 
carefully noticed by certain artists. We claim there are rare 
and valuable beauties lying comparatively unnoticed among 
tin' Green Mountains. We believe we are correct, when we 
--ay tli«' prospect from Peter's Hill may be ranked first in fur- 



21 

nishing these. We should ascend the hill on the west side, for 
so the whole view breaks abruptly upon us, and a multitude of 
fine prospects crowd themselves on our eager attention. We 
feel the propriety of the name "Green Mountains." We are 
pleased with the beauty of the prospect, until Its greatness 
delights us with the thought that we have before us, both the 
beautiful and sublime, and any one of a refined taste, will feel 
that a view where these are combined must have the prefer- 
ence. We have many beautiful prospects, but it is difficult to 
find one that is extensive and great, without being reminded of 
rugged rocks and a barren county; but Peter's Hill is not a 
barren mountain, for its top is a fine specimen of the excellent 
pasture, which the western part of our state affords, while 
on every side as far as the eye can reach, green pastures, green 
meadows and forests present themselves to our sight. 

What adds to the interest of a visit to our mountain by the 
patriot antl christian, is the historical story told by the name 
of the hill. Old Peter, who owned a lot of land on its top and 
side, was taken by slave-traders; some say as he was picking 
shells on the sea shore, other say he hid in the hut, when 
others were taken, but was betrayed by a dog, and at the age 
of six or eight years, brought to New England, and held a 
slave until the royal government ended. When our fathers ob- 
tained their liberty, they consistently gave him his. He be- 
came a land owner and lived to an old age, and died in peace 
in our free state. I have been told an aged woman, asked Dr. 
Bartlett, the son of his master, why he always called Old 
Peter ""brother" ? He replied, "he seems like a brother." Now 
is there not a moral beauty and greatness in his reply, which 
contrast with the conduct of many, who look upon the col- 
ored people as an inferior race? Then tradition informs us, 
our fathers in Massachusetts promised Heaven, if they were 
delivered from British armies, they would give liberty to their 
slaves; and when prosperity came and they were saved from 
their great danger, this hill is witness, they were true to their 
promise. Peter's Hill is therefore a monument to both the 
truthfulness and consistency of our fathers; a monument to 
the early emancipation of African slaves. Every inhabitant 
of Massachusetts, who is a friend of universal emancipation, 
and every one friendly to the freedom of the African race. 



will feel an interest in visiting and contemplating a state, that 
was true in its prosperity to promises made in years of trial 
and distress. 

Mr. Griswold in his history of Buckland, asserts that Miss 
Hannah Wluto wrote the criticism upon Mary Lyon's methods 
of dress which we find in her M 'in >irs, but they were written 
by Mrs. Oowles, and it is so stated by President Hitchcock, who 
edited '"the Memoir."' Tie also asserts witli great positiveness, 
that the Rev. William Ferry first courted Mary Lyon, and that 
a Mrs. White thought her daughter Amanda, would make him 
a better wife, and influenced him to marry her. It is a suffic- 
ient reply to say I have reliable information that Mr. Ferry 
was engaged to be married to Amanda White before he heard 
there was a Mary Lyon. 



Jonathan Beals served in the Revolutionary war more than 
three years. For apart of the time he was emyloyed in the 
manufacture of cannon. In 1794, he and Joseph Clarke and 
their families, with all lands lying north of a strait line, com- 
mencing at what is now the south-west corner of Ashfield, 

then* west 17 degrees, south 195 rods," was annexed to the 

district of Plainfield. 



